Bus master for a bus for connecting sensors and/or firing means

ABSTRACT

A bus master for a bus for connection of sensors and/or ignition means is described, which has at least two bus drivers allowing data to be received independently of one another. For this purpose a polling operation, specifically using a multiplexer or a demodulator associated through one of the particular bus drivers, is used. Furthermore, a state machine is provided, which also alternatingly determines the system status on the basis of the measured quantities determined on the bus conductor for the particular bus driver. In a refinement, a particular bus driver may have a dedicated processor for system status determination.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

[0001] The present invention is directed to a bus master for a bus for connection of sensors and/or ignition means according to the pre-characterizing clause of the independent claim.

[0002] U.S. patent application Ser. No. 5,964,815 A describes a bus system having a bus master or bus controller; ignition means and sensors are connectable to the bus.

[0003] The Airbag 2000 conference lecture K. Balzer et al.: BST Deployment and Sensor Bus, Dec. 5, 2000, reproduced in the Conference Proceedings, p. 12-1 through 12-5, describes another bus system, to which sensors and/or ignition means are connectable. This is a master/multislave system, a two-wire line being used as a bus. In addition, the power supply is modulated by the slaves, and the modulation is transmitted by the master via the bus when the slaves transmit their data via the bus. The master transmits a request to a slave to receive data from the slave. The slave then modulates its power consumption to generate the response to the master.

ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION

[0004] The bus master according to the present invention for a bus for connection of sensors and/or ignition means, having the features of the independent claim, has the advantage over the related art that data received simultaneously and independently of one another may be processed and analyzed by the at least two bus drivers in the bus master. This separate analysis allows the bandwidth to be doubled while the data transmission rate remains unchanged. It is furthermore possible to use all previous bus elements, the bus master according to the present invention being usable in any desired bus configuration, i.e., ring, spur, daisy chain, or parallel or mixed structures.

[0005] The measures and refinements recited in the dependent claims make advantageous improvements on the bus master defined in the independent claim possible.

[0006] It is particularly advantageous that a first multiplexer is associated with the at least two bus drivers for relaying the data received over the bus alternatingly to a single demodulator for both bus drivers. This corresponds to a polling operation and makes it advantageously possible to use a single demodulator for the data received by both bus drivers. This simplifies the design of the bus master according to the present invention. The use of a buffer memory makes it possible to prevent loss of individual data.

[0007] As an alternative, a particular bus driver may be assigned a dedicated demodulator. This ensures full independence of the data processing.

[0008] It is furthermore advantageous that either the particular bus drivers are assigned a common processor as a state machine, which determines a system status for the particular bus driver from the signals measured on the bus conductors, the individual bus drivers transmitting these measurement signals to the processor via a second multiplexer. As an alternative, a processor is assigned to each bus driver for determining the system status. The bus driver states receive, transmit, idle, or error management are understood here as a system status. For the receive status, the processor detects, on the basis of a current modulation on the bus conductors, that data from the sensors and/or ignition means connected to the bus is being transmitted and thus the particular bus driver is to be switched to receive. If no current-modulated signal is detected on the bus conductors, the processor either sets the system status at transmit if the bus master wishes to transmit data to the sensors and/or ignition means, or at idle if the bus master has no data to transmit. Error management, which is to be undertaken in the event of a short-circuit or an interruption in the bus conductor, constitutes another status. In the case of a two-wire line as a bus, the conductors may be interchanged or, for example, an interruption may be isolated.

DRAWING

[0009] Exemplary embodiments of the present invention are illustrated in the drawing and elucidated in detail in the description that follows.

[0010]FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of a bus system having a bus master according to the present invention;

[0011]FIG. 2 shows a first block diagram of the bus master according to the present invention, and

[0012]FIG. 3 shows a second block diagram of the bus master according to the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS

[0013] In an ignition and/or sensor bus for vehicle restraining systems (airbag and safety belts), a ring or different spur lines are used as configuration. For connection of a ring and/or for a plurality of spur lines, at least two bus drivers must be provided in the bus master.

[0014] In order to provide a greater bandwidth for future sensor applications, according to the present invention, each bus driver is able to receive data simultaneously with and independently of other bus drivers. This is achieved according to the present invention by assigning a particular bus driver a dedicated demodulator, or by different bus drivers sharing one demodulator with a multiplexer connected between them. It is also possible to use a mixed form when there are more than two bus drivers. For example, a dedicated demodulator is provided for one bus conductor which expects intense data traffic, while for other bus conductors, where less intense data traffic is expected, the bus drivers connected to the bus share one demodulator.

[0015] In the joint sensor and ignition bus design of Robert Bosch GmbH, Temic Telefunken Microelectronic GmbH, and Siemens Automobiltechnik AG, the data is analyzed in the polling operation according to the present invention by various bus drivers simultaneously with and independently of one another. This permits doubling the bandwidth, while a predefined data transmission rate is preserved. In other words, the transmission rate does not have to be increased for a greater bandwidth.

[0016]FIG. 1 shows, in the form of a block diagram, a bus master according to the present invention in a ring bus system. Bus master 1 according to the present invention has two bus drivers 2 and 3, which are connected to a bus conductor 10. Sensors 4, 9, and ignition means 5, 6, 7, 8 are connected in the ring bus. Impact sensors such as acceleration sensors, pressure sensors, or temperature sensors are used here as sensors. Ignition means 5, 6, 7, and 8 are used for deploying restraining means such as air bags or seat belt tighteners. This deployment takes place when sensors 4 and 9 detect an impact situation and this results in a deployment decision. The deployment decision may be made in a central control unit, for example, in bus master 1, or in a distributed manner in the individual ignition means 5, 6, 7, and 8 themselves. The data is transmitted here via bus conductor 10 using current modulation and Manchester coding. A two-wire line is used here as bus conductor 10, the bus conductor also being used for powering bus stations 4 through 9. This is known as power line data transmission. As an alternative, a separate power supply may also be provided. A design of bus conductor 10 as a single-wire line is also possible.

[0017]FIG. 2 shows the design of bus master 1 according to the present invention. Bus conductor 10 is illustrated here as a two-wire line having lines 11, 12 and 15, 16. Bus driver 2 transmits data received to a multiplexer 17 via a line 13. Bus driver 3 also transmits data received to multiplexer 17 via a line 18. Multiplexer 17 supplies this data alternatingly to a single demodulator 20, so that demodulator 20 is able to demodulate the data. Sensors 4 and 9 transmit sensor values as data to bus master 1, and the ignition means transmit diagnostic data providing information about whether the ignition means are still operational.

[0018] An analyzer 22, which analyzes the demodulated data, is connected downstream from demodulator 20. As a function of the analysis, if appropriate, analyzer 22 transmits, via a first data output, a response to bus driver 2, which is then transmitted via bus conductor 10. Analyzer 22 performs the same procedure via a second data output to bus driver 3 if appropriate. In this case, analyzer 22 is a processor of a control unit, which computes a deployment algorithm using the sensor data received over the bus. The response of analyzer 22 is, in the case of deployment, a deployment command to at least one of ignition means 5 through 8. The diagnostic data received from the ignition means is used to check whether the ignition means are still operational. This function also applies to the analyzers described in the following.

[0019] Bus driver 2 transmits measured quantities of bus conductor 10 to a second multiplexer 18 via a line 14. Bus driver 3 accomplishes this via line 19. Measured quantities include the power consumption on the high-side terminal of driver 2, i.e., positively biased line 11, the power consumption on the low-side terminal of driver 3, i.e., the ground terminal of bus 10, as well as the modulation current and voltage on bus 10. Multiplexer 18 supplies these operational quantities to a processor 21, which acts here as a state machine, processor 21 determining the system status of both driver 2 and driver 3 as a function of these measured quantities. For this purpose, processor 21 is connected to bus driver 2 via a first data output and to bus driver 3 via a second data output.

[0020] A plurality of bus masters may be used in a bus system according to FIG. 1; a multimaster bus system is also possible. Furthermore, instead of a ring design, multiple bus conductors may also be used. A daisy chain design, i.e., a serial bus, or a parallel bus are also possible. The bus master according to the present invention may also be used in mixed bus structures.

[0021]FIG. 3 shows, in the form of a block diagram, a section of bus master 1, which only concerns bus driver 2. Bus conductor 10 is again connected to bus driver 2 using individual lines 11 and 12. Bus driver 2 transmits received data, via line 13, to a demodulator 23, which then transmits the demodulated data to an analyzer 24, which transmits, if appropriate, as a function of the analysis, response data which bus driver 2 then transmits to further bus stations via bus 10.

[0022] Bus driver 2 is connected, via a data input/output, to a processor 25, which determines the status of bus driver 2 as a function of the measured quantities of bus conductor 10, determined by bus driver 2. System states here include receive, transmit, idle, and error management. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A bus master for a bus (10) for connection of sensors (4, 9) and/or ignition means (5 through 8), the bus master (1) and the at least two bus drivers (2, 3) associated with it being connectable to the sensors (4, 9) and/or ignition means (5 through 8) via the bus (10), wherein the at least two bus drivers are able to receive data independently of one another over the bus (10).
 2. The bus master as recited in claim 1, wherein a first multiplexer (17) is connected downstream of the at least two bus drivers (2, 3) for alternating supply of data received by the at least two bus drivers (2, 3) via the bus (10) to a demodulator (20).
 3. The bus master as recited in claim 1, wherein a demodulator (23) is associated with each of the at least two bus drivers (2, 3).
 4. The bus master as recited in claim 2 or 3, wherein a processor (21) having an upstream second multiplexer (18) is associated with the at least two bus drivers (2, 3) for alternatingly determining the instantaneous system status of the at least two bus drivers (2, 3) as a function of the quantities measured on the bus (10).
 5. The bus master as recited in claim 2 or 3, wherein a processor (25), which determines the instantaneous system status of the particular bus driver (2, 3) as a function of the quantities measured on the bus (10), is associated with each of the at least two bus drivers (2, 3). 